Mobius
by LordS1llyN1pples
Summary: A teenager from the 1960's finds himself in a world where anthropomorphic beings exist and technological marvels exist that he never thought possible. Changed genre to horror/romance. There will be lemons throughout the story, don't like them? Tough. We're all adults here. Story will become a lot more graphic from chapter 4 onwards. Necrophilia, rape, disturbing material etc etc
1. Chapter 1

Mobius

I've been advised to write down my story in case anyone in the future finds these notes useful. These events are written through my perspective and as far as I know, are all true and nothing has been embellished. All of the details have been written down, no matter how embarrassing, as requested.

The year was 1961. As far as I can remember, I've always been the weedy little kid in school that was always picked on. I had friends, sure, back then but they never really helped me. I don't blame them though, the jocks in school were huge, not much they could do about that. Jumping in to help would have only earned them a serious beating too.

There was this one bully in particular though that scared me. Billy Creel. He was scary, even for a 17 year old teenager. He was not a big guy, definitely not the strongest even. He had a mean streak though, oh boy did he ever. Rumor had it he used to shoot squirrels with his BB gun when he was younger. Billy smoked pot (marijuana) regularly and was always chewing on a toothpick. He was unpredictable, even the teachers were cautious around him. He came to our school last year after being kicked out of his old school for hitting a teacher.

"Well looky 'ere boys" he'd say to his friends whenever he caught me outside of school "looks like we got us a little faggot. Boy? You know what we do to faggots in these parts?" he spit out his toothpick and step up in my face.

Why didn't anyone say anything? You ask. Well, times were different then, we didn't have laws that were enforced against that type of bullying. I mean, I wasn't gay but that was besides the point. To Billy Creel and his gang, I was the faggy little dork who spent his time in the school library with his faggot-ass textbooks trying to kiss up to our science teacher Ms Edwards.

"I said don't you know what we do to you faggots 'round these parts boy?" He jabbed his finger into my chest and pushes his chest out into me as he looked down at me. I was only 5'7" and weighed 135lbs soaking wet. In other words: Easy target.

I tried to come up with something but the words wouldn't come out. Anything to get him to leave me alone.

"Hey boy!" One of his cronies called out to me, Jake Edwards, my science teachers son "answer him!"

Still, I could not bring myself to speak so I just stared at my feet hoping they would just spit on me this time, push me over and then leave me to it.

I had no such luck today. Next thing I knew, I heard a loud thud on the side of my head. I fell to the floor immediately. I couldn't tell if it were Billy that had hit me or one of his gang. I saw stars and felt dizzy. I made the mistake of trying to get up. I saw Billy's foot cock back too late. Wham! He kicked me in the face as hard as he could. I felt my nose break and start pouring with blood almost instantly.

"Shit Billy!" One of them called out. "You try explaining that to his dad!"

"Hey that's cool. Little faggot here ain't gonna tell no-one. Are you, faggot?"

I couldn't answer him. The pain was excruciating and I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness.

Somewhere in the distance I could just make out a couple of young black women yelling at them to "leave that poor boy alone He ain't done nothin' to you!"

"Hey! Shut the fuck up niggers!" Billy yelled as he turned his attention to them.

The last thing I remember was a group of young working men calling out to Billy and his crew before they ran off.

"Who the fuck are you calling a nigger boy?!" then the sounds of pounding footsteps as a group of young working-class black men ran by me after Billy.

One of them stopped and knelt next to me. "Hey kid? Don't worry. It's gonna be ok." His voice faded into oblivion as I lost consciousness. And so, that was the last act of human kindness I knew for the next 40 years.

When I woke up, I was not in a hospital as I expected but on the streets. Except it was not the same street I was on before I fell unconscious. I felt dizzy and confused. It was night and a choking-thick fog was all around me. The pavement was cracked and heavily worn. The last memory I had was of a concerned face looking down on me, telling me everything was going to be alright.

I shook my head and my nose exploded with pain, almost certainly broken. It took a few minutes, but, the disorientation soon cleared and I found my way shakily to my feet.

Where the hell was I? It didn't look anywhere like I'd seen in Boston before. There was no street lights. The buildings were strange. I had never seen high-rises built like this before. Simply put: they were huge but crumbling and old. A strong wind blew and I coughed heavily. The air felt dirty, unclean. It was strangely warm despite it being an afternoon in January.

I looked for my book bag and it was not there. I began to grow frightened. Where the heck was I? In my mind I tried to piece together the last things I knew. Billy Creel and his gang of racist shit-heads had beaten me up and had only been stopped by a group of blacks. I was thankful to them, if only I could say thank you...

I started walking down the street, not in any direction in particular, I had no idea where I was. One thing that struck me was the lack of grass, the lack of anything that was...alive. This place seemed devoid of life. That set off alarm bells in my head. Maybe I was unconscious in a hospital room somewhere? Maybe this was all part of some kind of dream. I'd heard about people slipping into comas and not realizing it. Was this what that was like? Was I hooked up to one of them life support machines?

No, I didn't think so. This was all too real to be a dream. I could feel the wind on my skin, it stinged somewhat. Odd.

Out of nowhere I became aware that I was being followed by someone. They were trying to be stealthy, but out of pure chance I had seen a figure take cover in the doorway of what looked like it used to be a shop. Now a derelict, non-descriptive building made of cinder-blocks.

"Hello?" I asked, not daring to raise my voice at the moment. I heard footsteps take off in the other direction and I felt compelled to follow. I didn't want to be alone out here. "Hey wait! Stop! I just wanna talk to you!" I ran after the figure I could just make out through the smog.

I had to stop after a few seconds and cough up the crud that had built up in my lungs already. And by cough up I really meant cough up. I knelt over hacking and coughing, it was that bad.

The figure stopped running and turned around. It approached me cautiously. Only now, in-between explosive coughing fits, could I make out that it was wearing a black cloak of sorts. I could not make out its face but whoever it was, this was a big big dude.

"An Overlander..." it spoke in a deep, gruff voice.

What the heck was an Overlander?

"Where...where am I?" I asked.

The figure came within just a few feet of me and knelt down next to me. "What are you doing here, Overlander? Do you not know where you are?"

"What? I just woke up here, please, what's going on?"

"This is not the time for games Overlander, what are you doing in this place?" the gruff voice demanded.

"I..." I fought to find the words "What is this place mister? I really don't know what's going on"

"You sound like one of Kintobor's experiments" he took a step back. "What is your unit code, robot?"

"I...don't know what you're asking. Please. If you know where I am, can you tell me how far away I am from Boston? And what is a robot?" I really had no clue what he was talking about.

"Memory wipe." A gentle, soft female voice said and another figure materialized behind the one who was questioning me. "Poor thing, probably...wait..." she paused. She was also wearing a cloak that covered her face. "blood, Knuckles! This is a real Overlander!"

I looked between the two, just as confused as they appeared to be.

"OK, Overlander, let's get you somewhere safe" the male said, sounding somewhat in shock "But don't try anything, I will rip you to pieces."

I nodded wordlessly and the female helped me up. Strange. Her hand had fur on it. I decided to keep my mouth shut. Maybe she had one of them birth defects.

I followed the two wordlessly for what had to be over an hour. I wanted to ask where we were going but I was too thankful to have found other living people to say anything. That, and I was too nervous to ask. The big guy could probably have me for lunch.

"What do you know about Kintobor, Overlander?" the man asked me.

I didn't know what to say, so I just sputtered out "Um...nothing, is he a Russian or something?"

"Russian" he asked quizzically, sounding just as confused as I was.

"Um, yeah, a Russky, y'know? Cold War?"

"I think he's hit his head Sally" he whispered to the female.

"We need to watch him then, have Tails take a look at him when we get him back Knuckles" said the female I assumed to be called Sally.

Knuckles. Tails. What kind of names were those?

After a few minutes, the man I assumed was called Knuckles paused as we appeared to have left the city, if you could call it that "Ok, Overlander, our ride will be here any minute. But I must ask. Why are you not wearing a mask?"

"Huh?" I asked, thinking of those gas masks they used back in the second world war. Was this smog poisonous gas? My chest suddenly tightened in fear.

"He's definitely out of it" he said to Sally.

Then he pulled his hood down and I was dumbstruck. This was no man. This was a freak. A god darned monster. For one thing, he had red fur. Bright red, not like them red foxes you see. But this was crimson red. His eyes...they were a funny shape, they seemed to be two eyes merged into one with a dip in the middle and two separate pupils.

My expression must have said it all as the female mentioned something to Knuckles about me never seeing something I think she called a 'Mobian' before.

Then she flipped her hood back. She looked equally as strange but not as shocking as the man-thing. She looked like kinda a chipmunk but her fur appeared comic-bushish in color. She had a slightly pointed nose. A caricature of a chipmunk I would have guessed. She was covered in very fine and short fur but yet, had a full head of hair.

I back away in shock "What the hell is this?!" I cried out, not fully able to comprehend what I was seeing.

"Hey, easy now. We're friends" Sally said to me in a soothing voice.

Almost at once I felt quite a bit more at ease. If they were going to hurt me, they would have done it already. I opened my mouth to say something but stopped myself as a low roar came from the distance growing louder. My mouth hung open as this type of flying machine came into view in the dark. It looked like some kind of flying car. I know, the concept sounds ridiculous to us humans, but bear with me.

It came to a stop beside us and a thing with light brown fur – again – looking as if it had leaped straight out of a comic book was at the wheel of this flying machine.

"Come on, get in, the radar-jammer won't protect us from a visual sighting" The thing shouted to us.

Knuckles put his hand on my shoulder and guided me to the back of the machine. If I had to describe it, I would have to say that it was some kind of flying automobile. Crazy I know...but that's what it was.

The pilot, who Sally called 'Tails' took off and before I knew it we were flying...in a car! The concept was madness to me but yet, here were were. Flying through the night sky. The wind blowing my hair back and making my eyes water. I clung on to the seat in front of me in fear. What the heck was this thing?

After a few minutes I begun to relax and for some silly reason, remembered my manners.

"Um, Mister Knuckles, sir?" he turned to me "Name's David Whitby, pleased to meet ya" I extended my hand.

I don't know why I was not expecting him to shake it, but he did. I repeated the same to Sally and Tails, minus the hand shake, because he was flying the car-thing.

"You really ain't from around here, are you?" Knuckles asked, his well-defined jaw relaxed a little.

"No sir, I mean, I just woke up, I don't know where _here_ is."

"Chuck's gonna have a field day when he sees you" he flashed what I assumed was a friendly grin, bright white teeth flashed at me.

And this is how I started my new life, in a new world.


	2. The New Evil

Mobius Chapter 2

The thick smog that was black as soot from the chimney began to thin out as we flew further away from what I imagined was a city at some point. As it did so, I could make out trees in the distance. I wanted to speak and ask where we were going, but I was too captivated to be flying for the first time in my life. The feeling was...indescribable. The rush of air through my short brown hair, the way my stomach seemed to lurch up into my chest and just being able to look down on the world. I could not see much, albeit the outline of the city which was slowly fading into a black oblivion.

The trees came closer to us and they looked dead. My heart sank. Was everything dead in this world? My cynicism was quickly set to one side. The beauty! Green trees came into view. They were huge, nothing like what I had ever seen before. Even during my field trip to Yellowstone park I had not seen trees this size. They were green and vibrant, full of life. None of it felt real. What I was seeing, one cannot possibly comprehend unless they experienced it for themselves.

"Say" Knuckles started "Where did you come from? I've seen the Great Forest countless times and you are acting like you just seen an alien."

"Mister..."

"And stop with the Mister, just call me Knuckles. Everyone does."

"OK. The last thing I remember was being beat up by this guy I know. Billy Creel. Have you heard of him?"

How stupid of me, of course he hadn't heard of him. I was in a whole different world. Billy Creel didn't exist here. Neither did his gang of racist shitheads. I was alone. Alone in a world where I was known as Whitby, David Whitby the Overlander. What the heck was an Overlander anyway?

Knuckles shook his head. I remained silent throughout the rest of the journey.

"OK, radar detector is clear, nothing followed us. Fasten your seat-belts, we're landing" Tails spoke in a very soft voice.

He sounded very young, I couldn't accurately estimate his age because I'd never seen anything like him before. In fact I had never seen anything like these creatures before, except in comic books from when I was still in elementary school.

It was about now that it struck me, that they were all speaking English. How was this possible? I had begun to think that maybe I was in one of them comas I had heard about on the TV. One news report had mentioned a girl who had been ice skating out with her parents, had slipped over and hit her head. She didn't wake up for over 40 years. Was this what was happening to me?

I tried to push the thought aside as we approached a clearing in the forest. The trees had all been cut down but there was no way we could land in there. An airplane, as far as I knew, needed a good long runway to land. But the plane slowed almost to a stop in midair above the clearing. I felt a sudden jump as what I think was a second engine on the underside of the plane kicked into life. It roared loudly, scaring birds I had never seen before out of the trees nearby and we slowly descended to the forest floor, coming to a gentle stop on the ground.

"Ok, activating stealth mode" Tails pressed a few buttons out of hundred or so that were in front of him.

I didn't notice any change. We got out of the plane. I hit the floor on my hands and knees and vomited in the short grass.

"Huh, you think he'd never flied before" Knuckles casually mentioned to Sally as I wretched. My guts heaving.

Finally I picked myself up and looked around. To say I was in paradise was an understatement. This was heaven. The grass was so green and full of life. The trees towered above me, far taller than any tree I had ever seen. Bright flowers seemed to sprout in the shadows where the sunlight failed to pierce through the dense trees. It all seemed impossible, it all seemed so fake to me.

Sally walked over to me, her movements fluid, like poetry in motion and she patted me on the back.

"Easy now, it will pass" she said in a soft, soothing voice that instantly reassured me and I no longer felt afraid of what was happening. "It happens to everyone first time, even Knuckles here" Knuckles flashed her a mildly irritated look and got to work pulling a very-well camouflaged tarpaulin over the plane...which had disappeared.

"Sally...the plane...where did it?" I failed to find the words, it had literally disappeared.

"It's still there" she banged on something invisible in the air and it made a solid metal clank as she did so.

"Incredible" was all I could manage.

"Come on, let's get you inside, I smell a rainstorm" she looked up at the clouds rapidly forming above our heads, dark gray ones.

I nodded and took my hand to lead me into the forest. Her fur was soft, not bristly as I had thought they would be. Warm too. It sounds crazy, but I expected to feel cold, as if she wasn't real. This just confirmed to me that this was all real. That this was actually happening. Even if it were my mind wondering in a comatose state, it was very convincing to say the least.

We walked for a good few minutes into the forest, it was surprisingly clean. No weeds were growing, just grass that looked as if it had been cut short only yesterday. Did someone actually mow all of this? I looked about in wonderment, the trees were just too perfect. No signs of dead branches, there was not even any leaf fall on the ground. This truly was heaven.

Sally paused in front of a tree stump. An old tree stump, could have been there years. "Knuckles can you get this for me?" she asked Knuckles who nodded and gripped the stump in his gloved hands.

He heaved at it with such intensity, sinewy muscles stood out on his arms as he lifted this stump straight up until it tipped like a lid from a half-opened can of baked beans. To my surprise, there was a hole underneath the stump. A great hiding place.

Sally turned to me, her hazel eyes caught mine and she told me "Ok, this may seem scary, but just jump into the hole, it will be fine, I promise. Just follow me"

I nodded and she jumped in. Not wanting to appear a coward in front of these strangers I jumped in after her. My heart leaped into my throat for a moment. I was not free-falling like I thought I would, but I was sliding. Yes, sliding. It was like one of those slides at the amusement parks. The air whistled through my hair as the slide curved and curved into a spiral shape. I made the foolish mistake of putting my hands down on either side of the slide to slow myself, only to be punished with an almost-instant burning sensation in my hands. I quickly drew them in. The pain was agonizing yet also served to reassure me that this was real.

Suddenly, I stopped sliding and landed in something soft and stopped moving just like that. I looked around, dazed and confused only for Sally to grab me by the wrist and pull me aside.

"Come on, otherwise Knuckles will land on you" her grip was strong, like a vice.

Sure enough, Knuckles landed in what I could now see was a huge pile of leaves quickly followed by Tails...who landed right on top of Knuckles.

"Dammit Tails!" he shouted, pushing Tails off of him.

"Sorry...my bad..." Tails replied, almost mumbling.

'Tails...' I found myself thinking as I spotted Tails two tails sprouting from the base of his spine. 'Aha, that's his nickname!'

I took a minute to look around me, it was not dark, but well-lit by lanterns embedded in the walls. I was in a huge cavernous space that was was lit by lanterns, a lot of them. Flames that did not move. They did not act like flames at all. They were perfectly straight and did not even so much as flicker when we all came crashing in from the slide.

"Take a moment...um" Sally begun "My apologies, what is your name? I fear I missed it"

"David. David Whitby" I extended my hand to Sally as one should do with a lady.

Unlike Knuckles, she firmly grasped my hand and shook it.

"Ah, Whitby, I am surprised by your etiquette, most Overlanders are not concerned by such trivial formalities"

"Oh please Sally, just call me David" I was taken aback by her proper formalities.

"Of course David," she smiled, no teeth showing, just a friendly smile "I am Princess Sally Acorn. Where you are standing now is Knothole, our forward operating base."

A princess?! I found myself at a loss for words now. I had addressed a princess of all the people in this world by her first name!

Sally could see the look change on my face and laughed "Don't worry David, the only royalty out here is Mother Nature. Titles are meaningless here."

I merely nodded. I was just glad that this new friend had not taken offense to my indiscretion. I had read that in the country of England, that the Queen was to be addressed as Her Majesty. So anyone could see why I thought I had made a serious faux pas.

Tails was looking at my hands, blood was dripping from them. I felt embarrassed now to be bleeding in the presence of a princess.

"Looks like you put your hands down on the slide" Tails commented "Come on, let's get you cleaned up" He motioned for me to follow him.

I nodded silently and followed him into a tunnel. A huge tunnel at that. The width was of two strong-men and the height almost double that of a man.

"I don't know where you came from, Overlander, but your presence here could be of use to us."

"Overlander?" I finally asked "What is that?"

Tails spun on his heel, his two tails straightened in what I guess was an expression of surprise. "You are an Overlander. How could you not know this?"

"I um...I never heard the term before. Sorry" I added, feeling as though I owed him an explanation.

"Oh wow, I've never met an Overlander that didn't know the name of their own people. Just...wow. Rotor is gonna have a field day with this. Chuck too."

I felt a little uncomfortable. "And how is it that you expect me to be of use?"

"Well, I cannot say much but, Sally has big plans to get the Overlanders to help us defeat the ultimate evil"

"And what is the ultimate evil?" I felt intrigued now.

Tails looked at me blankly "Robotnik of course, you are going to help us kill the dictator Robotnik."

Taken aback I asked him "You mean, like Hitler? That kind of dictator?"

"Hitler?" he really did look confused "Who is that?"

Of course, Hitler never existed here. Come to think of it, Judaism probably never existed here either.

"And who is this Robotnik?" I repeated the name slowly, it sounded foreign.

"Robotnik?" he asked incredulously "Robotnik is the reason everything has gone bad. He is the reason that most of the Mobians are now robots. He is the one responsible for the city we pulled you out from. How can you not know him? You really must be an alien. Either that or you've been living under a rock your whole life."

"I see..."

Now it was starting to make sense. I was in a world where there had been no Hitler. Only this Robotnik who had turned his citizens into these things they called 'robots.' I was way in over my head and I had only just realized it.


	3. War

War

Tails led me through a corridor, a corridor lined with limestone, not dirt as I thought it would be. I looked around myself marveling at the architecture.

Tails noticed my curiosity. "Yeah, most people think we live in dirt caves. That is, until they actually get here. Not sure how long Knothole has been here for, it's been our base of operations for as long as I can remember. The thing is" he scratched his head with a white colored gloved hand "If this sanctuary was merely dug out from the soil, it would have caved in on us a long time ago" he noticed my unease when he mentioned _caved in_ and quickly added "Oh! Don't worry about it, this place is carved into limestone, we've not had a cave-in, ever. OK, here's Chuck, he'll fix your hands for you"

The corridor had opened up into a room-of-sorts. I was taken aback by how high-tech everything was. There were these machines that looked like the super-computers NASA used to operate their space program. Behind a white screen, I could see a stretcher laid out with machines next to it. They didn't appear to be switched on. I could see a figure behind the screen with what appeared to be spines growing out of his back. 'Medical Bay' was scrawled on a sign in untidy handwriting. This was where the injured people went. I was beginning to understand now. Knothole was kind of a community, deep underground.

The figure stepped out from behind the screen and what first struck me was how colorful he was. A deep azure blue. He looked oddly humanoid but at the same time...more animal than human. He looked old, I assumed this due to the gray-almost white eyebrows and mustache he had.

He wrinkled his eyebrows and looked me up and down. Immediately I felt reassured in his presence.

"Put your hands down on the side 'ey sonny?" his voice was gravelly, much like an old mans.

I nodded. "Names Whitby. David Whitby. Nice to meet you sir. Are you the doctor here?" I motioned up to the sign.

He shook his head "I'm called a lot of things down here. Doctor I am not. I just patch up folk here who get injured one way or another. You have three kids and you'll soon learn how to take care of people. Now, just take a seat over here and I'll take care of your hands" me turned and walked towards the stretcher.

I walked over to the stretcher and sat down, it was covered in soft white linen. The machines around it were things I had never seen before. They looked like equipment from the hospital but more advanced. I know this because of the time my mother took me to hospital when I broke my arm when I was 7.

"The names Chuck, a lot of people here just call me Uncle." Chuck opened a drawer next to the stretcher and took out a vial of viscous, purple liquid. "Now this will sting a little son but just relax and let it do its work."

It was at this point that I felt Uncle Chuck was the grandfather I had always wanted. My grandfather had passed on when I was very young. I felt at ease around Chuck, despite him not being human and being a complete stranger. Something about the way he wrinkled his forehead and eyebrows when he was concentrating.

He took out a syringe, sucked up a small amount of the purple liquid and applied it to my hands. It did sting, a lot, but the pain soon subsided. And to my astonishment, the wounds seemed to heal shut before my very eyes! This was incredible to put it mildly.

"How did you..." I started but could not finish.

"Take it easy, it just re-grew the base layers of your skin. I ain't ever used this on one of you Overlander types but it should work all the same. Give it a few hours and your hand will be good as new. And don't go putting your hands down on the slide again and ruining my hard work." He chuckled to himself whilst putting the vial back in the drawer along with the syringe. "OK sonny, you're good to go. Just follow Tails and he'll take you to meet Rotor." He paused looking unsure "Rotor is a little...eccentric. But don't prejudge him. He's a good fellow, just bothers me a lot when it comes to building new contraptions."

"OK Chuck, I'll remember that, thanks again for fixing my hands. We don't have medicine like this where I'm from"

"What?" Chuck asked sounding incredulous at this statement.

"Um...yeah, we don't have medicine that heals wounds like that. What is it?"

"Extract of white moss and some Turing leaves to help it act faster. Say, you're not from around here, are you?"

I felt like everyone was asking me this today. So I decided I may as well accept that I am the foreigner in a new country and knew nothing about my new home.

"OK, just follow Tails now and he will show ya around"

"Alright David, just through here, Rotor's probably already heard about you and can't wait to meet you" Tails nodded his head towards the doorway on the other side of the room.

Another hand-made sign, 'Mechanic and Robotics', was scrawled on it in what looked like blue crayon. The handwriting seemed as though a child had wrote it.

"Rotor is OK, just don't say anything about drinking the water up there to him" he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"Huh? The water?" I couldn't see why the water would be a problem.

"Just don't"

"Um...OK"

This was a short hallway compared to the first corridor. The room we came in was something else though. There were machines everywhere. Machines I had only seen in the newspapers and then some that I did not recognize. What the hell? Excuse my language, but this stuff was space-aged. Like completely alien to me. Monitors displayed graphs and numbers that changed frequently. Some of these machinations looked creepily humanoid. I could make out what resembled a head, torso, arms and legs on some of the contraptions that were docked in bays that resembled a mechanics works-pace in a garage.

A walrus-looking humanoid was knelt down in front of one of these contraptions closest to me. Sparks flew out from the blow-torch he was using on the machines knee-joints. I immediately assumed he was a walrus-thing because of the face and tusks protruding down from his upper jaw down below his chin.

He looked at us and cut off the blow-torch, the flame dying away instantly. The gentle roaring noise that had filled the air was replaced by the sound of computers humming in the background and the gentle beeping from a diagnostic monitor next to the machine he was currently working on.

"You must be the Overlander?" pulling back the black goggles that he wore he looked at me with wide, blood-shot eyes.

"Um...yes, you must be Rotor?"

"Pleasure to meetcha" he extended a hand which I happily shook. "Tell me, how come you're not wearing all of that armor the Overlanders usually wear?"

"Well I, I don't know what you mean." I really didn't.

"OK, then would you mind wearing this on your wrist?" he picked up a black bracelet from a nearby table. It was thick and looked uncomfortable. "It's a GPS device, it also records audio, just so we know where you are. We can't take risks by bringing in an outsider, especially one who says he doesn't know the other Overlanders."

"Um, sure" he wrapped it around my wrist and I heard a click, it had locked itself there. I was not sure what GPS was, but if they could see wherever I was at all times, that might come in handy considering I was in a strange new world.

"Oh," Rotor added "before you go and meet Sonic, I'll just tell you this straight. Chuck can fix you up for almost anything, but a lost limb? Not so easy. If you ever lose a limb in the fight, you will be taken to me and I will set you up with the latest prosthetic technology."

"Wait, you mean you can actually replace entire missing limbs?"

"I know, pretty cool, huh?" he hefted an arm made of metal, the metal had no obvious welding marks on it, it all matched together seamlessly "This is organic-metal. After a few weeks of having one of these fitted, your nerve endings will attach to the prosthetic and you will regain full feeling again."

"Rotor...what is organic metal? How does it even work?"

"Now that will take me a long time to explain, time we don't have right now. Just be assured that we are well-equipped to handle any injuries here. But, in essence, the organic metal will essentially become a part of your body. Super strength is a little added bonus to having one of these." he looked thoughtful for a second, his hand stroking his chin and then he looked up at me "Bunny Rabbot. She has two prosthetic legs, not from here though. Got them from the big bad dude himself, I reverse engineered the technology. I keep her legs maintained, say hi to her for me will ya?"

And with that, he turned back to his workstation and continued working on his machine.

I was really starting to understand now, these creatures were in a war, a nasty war with very real injuries, the same injuries that could happen to me. Or even, death.

"OK, Sonic's just through here" Tails nodded his head to a doorway – with no door – on the other side of the room. I followed him through and it was here that I first met the leader of what I would know to be called "The Resistance" Sonic.

The room was bare except for a treadmill that looked years beyond what we had back home.

He looked like a sort of humanoid blue-hedgehog. Not bright blue, but a deep, dark blue. His back was covered in fur and razor sharp looking spines. They bristled slightly as he set eyes on me. Sonic got up and his spines seemed to relax and flatten against his back.

"So you must be David" he spoke with a voice that sounded almost like it had come from a teenager.

"Yes, David Whitby, you must be Sonic?"

"That's right. But I have to ask, do you _really_ not know any other Overlanders?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Honestly? I never heard the term before. I'm still not sure how I even got here. This place is all so different from home."

"Home?" he looked interested now "and where is home?"

"Just south of Boston"

"Bos-ton?" the confusion across his face confirmed it – I was on an entirely different planet after-all.

"I don't, I...don't think I am from your planet" I knew I sounded stupid the moment my words left my mouth.

"Alien huh? Well, you don't dress like any Overlander I've ever seen. But David, tell me. Would you risk your life for one of us?"

The question struck me, I really was not expecting that. Given that these people/creatures had rescued me from the choking smog in the city, I felt I owed them.

"Yes, I would. Without your friends, I would still be lost in the city and the smog."

Sonic looked down, pondering this information. "How were you able to spend even a few minutes in the city without Robotnik's sentry's finding you?"

"I don't know. I just appeared in the city and Knuckles found me"

Sonic started pacing back and forth "Mr Whitby, you may be of great use to us. Robotnik's technology allows him to detect almost every sentient being within his city. The fact that his SWATbots didn't detect you almost immediately without any form of ID-blocker chips installed in your body tells me something." He stopped pacing and stared at me intently "It confirms that you are not of this world and that you can walk in and out of the city without stealth equipment. Our stealth capabilities do not last long, so our missions have to be quick...but you. You can just waltz right on in there and do whatever you please. So, David, how do you feel about helping us bring down a monster who turned most of this planet into a nuclear wasteland?"

Before I could stop myself, I replied instantly "OK Sonic, I'm in, I will help you"


	4. Overlander

Overlander

"Good...good! We could use all the help we can get." Sonic stood up out of his chair, his youthful features brightened up at my answer "You can really help us here. You will be the second Overlander to help us"

"The second? You mean, the other people like me have not helped you?" I wanted to get an accurate picture of what was going on here.

"Sadly, yes. The last person to ever help the Resistance in any way was Kintobor. You know him as Robotnik now" Sonic paced back and forth.

"Wait, Kintobor is Robotnik? How did that happen?"

"Kintobor was a good friend of mine. A very good friend. He was a doctor, and head of the department of defense. That was until the accident happened. Or I should rather say, incident." Sonic paused his pacing and looked downcast "Dr Kintobor was working on a vaccine. A vaccine to protect all Mobians and Overlanders from all disease. The goal was to extend life, his ultimate goal was to prevent our children dying from a plague that was coursing through our lands. But instead, what we got was a nightmare." He clenched his fist tightly at this "Kintobor, being the good doctor that he is, insisted on testing the vaccine on himself. He was a good Overlander, one of the best. Only him and his assistant, Julian Snively, were the only Overlanders to help us Mobians. The rest were obsessed with war and committing monstrosities. Kintobor was like the father I never had. Snively, a brother to me. Snively was Kintobor's nephew. They had fled from the south, where the Overlanders inhabit, to come here and make the world a better place" Sonic's face turned into one of bitter resentment "that was the idea anyway. Someone did something to Kintobor's vaccine. Someone added something to it. When he injected himself with the new vaccine, something inside him changed. I was only a young one back then, but even I could tell, a couple of days after his vaccine, he begun to change."

"So, you mean to tell me that the man who did all this, was a good guy to begin with?"

"Yes, but whatever was added to his vaccine, had a serious effect on him. He became more mean, more cruel. Kintobor and my father were the best of friends. The night when Robotnik and his robots took over, my father, Jules, was killed in cold blood by the man who renamed himself Robotnik. Fitting name, huh?" He did not look like he expected an answer from me "Robots are machines, made from metal and circuitry boards. They have no feeling or emotion, they only feel what their creator programs them to feel. They can be good, as they were used in the past. Things like cleaning the city and helping the sick and infirm to collect their groceries from the store. But these, these were monsters that he created. He called them Swatbot's, machines designed in the shape of Overlanders and blown up to a larger size. Their strength is beyond that of even Knuckles, before he had some upgrades from Rotor. They were unfeeling killing machines. They had arm mounted lasers and were capable of independent thought. Think of it " he turned to me, his azure eyes staring piercingly into mine "A machine, capable of independent thought. Artificial life. Disgusting! Snively tried to intervene, but Robotnik took advantage of his nephew's love for Kintobor, and gave him the same vaccine that had done something to him. We still don't know what it did, but we believe it altered his brain, took control."

"That is...that is sick" was all I could manage. Machines that became robots, a vaccine altered to strip the host of its identity, this was a little too much, I looked around for somewhere to sit down. I sat on a row of chairs against the wall closest to me that I had missed before.

"And to make things worse. Kintobor, now Robotnik as he aptly named himself, found a way, using Chuck's previous research into curing old age, to make living things turn into robots."

It was only at this point, that I realized just how sick of a man we were dealing with. He had actually found a way to turn humans into machines. What kind of monster was this?

"It is late though, you should get some rest, we will talk more tomorrow. Sally will show you to your resting quarters. We have a room laid out for you already. If you need anything, just ask Rotor. We will talk in the morning, as for me" he yawned "I need a little sleep myself"

I nodded and turned to Tails, who was no longer there, but Sally was instead.

"OK, David, just come with me, I will show you your quarters." She winked at me and motioned for me to follow.

Oddly, if she were human, I could almost have sworn that she was flirting with me.

I followed her through several doorways – without doors – and corridors before we stopped by a room that actually had a door. Sally opened it and flashed me a smile. I noticed that I she had a very sweet smile, No teeth in it whatsoever. Just a plain, reassuring smile.

"Thanks Sally. Do you" I paused "do you also live down here?"

She laughed and nodded "I live just down the hall. Room 22, if I'm not in the lab, you will find me there"

"Lab?" I asked.

"Oh, Tails didn't show you that, I will give you a tour tomorrow, it's a bit more advanced than Rotors workstation. Just don't bring any electronics. Just a security reason, we cannot risk Robotnik seeing what we are working on. The results would be catastrophic."

"More advanced than Rotors workstation?" I found that hard to believe. Rotor was working with space-age tech and here was a princess telling me that she was working on even more advanced tech?

"Yes, oh..." she suddenly looked as if she were deep in thought "Do you have any skills?"

"Skills?"

"Like, are you a science geek, fitness maniac or what?"

"Oh!" Almost immediately I felt useful "I'm a savant"

"Savant? What is that?"

Of course she had not heard the term before. "I mean, I can calculate numbers in my head, astronomical numbers"

Her eyes widened "Are you being serious?"

"Yes, I can work out any mathematical equation in my head almost instantly"

"That is...rather interesting, stop by my room tomorrow. I want to put that to the test."

I nodded, glad to finally feeling like I could be of genuine use to my rescuers.

My bed was different. That was putting it lightly. It was definitely not a bad bed. Just different. It appeared to be made from strong tree branches that had grown in a way to form a natural curvature that had grown in tandem of the spine of an Overlander. The sheets had been replaced with a soft green substance that was most certainly not moss. It was too artificial to be moss. Regardless, I shrugged and sat down on the bed. It was strange. The green substance that was completely smooth, encompassed me. It molded to my body-shape and was warm. In fact, it felt just the right temperature. Very quickly I found myself falling asleep when there was a knock on my door that jolted me to my senses.

Not wanting to leave the warm bedding, I got up anyway and walked over to the door. To my surprise, Sally was there. For the first time I noted that she wore only an unbuttoned blue sleeveless jacket.

"Hi" her voice was soft "just checking that you are settling in alright"

"Um...yeah. This is all new to me," I paused in thought "what country am I in?"

"Country?"

"Yeah, like, you know, where am I?"

"We don't have countries here. You are on the planet Mobius, and you are in my fathers kingdom of Acorn."

"Mobius? I'm on a different planet..."

"You don't seem like the usual Overlander to me. Where did you come from?"

"Boston, our planet is called Earth. Have you not heard of it?"

Sally shook her head. Somehow I had traveled to a different planet. And these creatures, were my only friends. Everything was so different, culture-shock would have been putting it lightly.

"Who are these Overlanders?"

"Evil." she stated bluntly and locked eyes with me. "Overlanders are evil. They worship the old gods, the ones that they think came before mother nature." her hand rose up with graceful swiftness and caressed my cheek. "Let your thoughts drift and I will show you"

I felt compelled to obey. My thoughts drifted so easily, my worries melted into the shadows caused by a flickering candle by my bed-side.

 _A lantern hangs above me. I am in a room, the only light is that which is being cast by the lantern. I could not make out the walls or even the floor. I could see a stone platform in front of me, a young lady, looked slightly older than a teenager, perhaps early 20's. She was naked. Her body was fit and well-toned. Something off about her though._

 _Her left arm. Her left arm was made entirely of metal. Wordlessly I watched as a man roughly 6'5" approached the young woman. He was naked except from a mask covering his entire head. Two horns sprouted from it, it was a goats head. The fur looked too real to be fake. I could make out a pair of black eyes behind the mask._

 _He approached her, his member fully engorged. He leaned over her, then he licked her neck all the way down to her waist with an obscenely long tongue. I couldn't tell if the tongue was even his, there was no hole where the mouth should be though. His tongue tracing her delicate pale skin. Her fine hairs stood on end, she shivered in apparent delight and the man seemed to take this as a sign of encouragement. He buried his face between her legs, the muscles in his jaw working frantically and finally the woman came to life. Writhing on the platform, she grasped his head and pushed his head down harder and moaned._

 _I felt dirty watching this. Unclean. Something I was not supposed to see._

 _Then there was light. The room lit up with candles lined along the walls. I was in an old cottage made of wood. The smell of decay, damp wood and copper hit my nostrils all at once._

 _The man had mounted the woman, without hesitation he thrust his large member inside of the woman. She cried out. It sounded oddly animal. Certainly more animal than human. In turn, the man started thrusting frantically inside of her._

 _Blood was pooling from beneath their loins, running trails down the raised stone platform. Desperate to look away from this obscene act, I looked around the room. There was no comfort there. Just dusty old chairs, a rotting chicken on a battered looking table teeming with maggots._

 _Everything about this was morally appalling. The man finally looked at. He pulled out of the young woman, stood up and faced me. His swollen member had turned a sickly shade of purple and appeared yet even more swollen. He grasped it with one hand and started masturbating in front of me. He took a sharp breath in as he appeared to climax. Only he didn't. Maggots came out instead, writhing around from his urethra before landing on the floor with a silent splat._

" _We're gonna have some fun, boy" he ripped off his mask. There was no human head, his head was made of metal with two bright red lights where his eyes should be. "Hail the Mistress of Worms!"_

Then I was back in the room with Sally.

"Fuck! What the hell was that?!"

"Sorry David, I can only show you what is currently happening, not the past. But this. This is what Overlanders are like here. They are sick, vile and possessed by a dark entity." her hazel eyes fixated on me. "They are also Robotnik's enemy. But ours too. These abominations seek to turn the world into one of darkness and cruelty. They are sick, literally sick. Something changed them. They used to be just like us. But now. Now they have become more monster than Overlander."

"Sally?"

"Yes?"

"Am I in hell?"

"No. You are not in hell. But these Overlanders and Robotnik are as close as you will come without dying."


End file.
